Adoption Fundraiser

We're having an adoption fundraiser. Earlier this year we adopted our sweet baby boy, Forest. We just found out that his birthmother is expecting again in February, and we are hoping to be able to add Forest's sibling to our family.

In order to help us defray the costs of 2 adoptions within a year, some good friends of ours are putting together a benefit garage sale and bake sale this Saturday, December 19th. You can read more about it on our Facebook fundraiser event page - Here

We've also opened an account at Wells Fargo strictly for donations. You can go to any Wells Fargo and donate to account 9200925973.

Hope to see you there!

What a Human Soul is Worth

Here's a shocking development out of the Optimum Population Trust in England:

"Rushing to the front of the race for the prize of Most Vomit-Inducing Environmental Initiative Ever Devised, the UK’s Optimum Population Trust ... has just launched PopOffsets. This quirkily named campaign is actually deeply sinister: It invites well-off Westerners to offset their carbon emissions by paying for poor people in the Third World to stop procreating.

In short, if you feel bad about your CO2-emitting jaunt to Barbados, or the new Ferrari you just splurged on, then simply give some money to a charity which helps to “convince” Third World women not to have children, and — presto! — the carbon saved by having one less black child in the world will put your guilt-ridden mind at rest."

You can read the full blog post "OPT: Save the Planet by Preventing African Births" by Brendan O’Neill of National Review.

Christmas e-Photobook 2009

Make a Smilebox photobook

Life Is Never Boring

Two recent events have been blogged about by my friends, so in the spirit of laziness or overwhelmedness (not a word, but you know what I mean), I've decided to link directly to their entries:

Toddler Passion - Nov. 24, 2009
One of my closest friends from high school came for a visit, and our two-year-olds fell instantly in love. It was hysterical and SO cute!

Chicken Mayhem - Nov. 20, 2009
Yes, that was our chicken who had escaped the day before when our dog, Remy, attacked one of the other chickens. Miraculously, the attacked chicken was not hurt and the escaped chicken chose our friends' yard to hang out the next day. It's a holiday chicken miracle!

Speaking of the chicken paranormal, I heard this very entertaining story on the radio on the same day of our own chicken miracle

http://podcast.thisamericanlife.org/podcast/369.mp3

It's the 1st story in the "This American Life" 11/20/09 broadcast told by Greg Warner, a reporter living in Afghanistan.

Forest's Sealing - Nov. 7th

We were sealed to Forest on Saturday, Nov. 7th at the Mesa Arizona temple. It was such a special day and so amazing to have our 3 children with us dressed in white in the temple. Little Forest was calm and peaceful through the sealing and I was overcome with feelings of gratitude for my family and all of the blessings the Lord has showered on me. What an amazing gift!

Here are a few pictures from before and after the sealing:

8 Months Old ... Happy Halloween! ... New Nephew

Forest is 8 months old today! I can't believe how quickly the time has gone. He is such a big boy. He already weighs 20 pounds (just 5 pounds less than Rebekah who's almost 3 years old!) and is all muscle. I'm so grateful for my boy and for all of my children. They all look adorable in their Halloween costumes.

Also, our nephew, Davis, was born the day before Halloween. We visited him and his mommy at the hospital that afternoon, and I took some pictures. You forget how small those sweet newborn babies really are. I put a few pictures below.

Tinkerbell


Peter Pan


Forest the Lost Boy...to continue with the Peter Pan theme


On Halloween night Rebekah decides to be Batman instead


Our new nephew, Davis

Finally Finalized!

We flew to Utah this week to finalize Forest's adoption. What a feeling of relief and joy to know that he is legally ours. It's one thing to feel like a child is yours, but it's another to know that all the loose ends have been tied up, and your baby is yours completely in the eyes of the law.

Here's a picture of us with the judge, Tyrone Medley, who used to play basketball with University of Utah, by the way.

We also had a little shindig to celebrate and see family and friends. It ended up being more of a New York reunion for me, since a bunch of friends of mine from 20 years ago showed up. We've all gotten older, but everybody seemed exactly the same.


Aunt Sue with Forest. She's a surrogate grandma now that both of Forest's grandmothers are on missions:




Forest sleeps through the party




Friends




On the airplane home

Again, Amen!

Elder Dallin H. Oak's address to BYU-Idaho students on Oct. 13, 2009.

"Religious Freedom"

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/news-releases-stories/religious-freedom


and a related article from USA Today which, ironically, illustrates exactly the kind of anti-religious feeling Elder Oaks describes.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-10-15-mormon-gay_N.htm

Amen!

Forest Crawls & Gets 1st Tooth - Oct. 11, 2009

Forest is growing up so fast! Too fast. Yesterday, Oct. 11, 2009, Forest crawled for the first time and he got his first tooth, bottom right. A big day for a big boy!

Here's a video of him crawling:


A few recent pictures too:








Swine flu update:

It took us 2 weeks to all get over it and its complications, but we're mostly recovered. Rebekah ended up getting the beginnings of pneumonia and I ended up with bronchitis, but after some antibiotics, we're all good. Our friends from church were amazing bringing us dinner several nights in a row. I did feel badly for them, though, knowing they did not want to take the swine flu home to their families. And one family who helped us out a lot did end up getting it, so now they're going through the chain of illness. Sorry!